The present invention relates to the automatic positioning of an antenna in response to channel selection.
Antennas are provided as accessories of RF receivers in order to provide the receivers with the capability of receiving RF signals that are transmitted over the air. Typical antennas that are used in connection with RF receivers, such as televisions, are more sensitive to the signal emitted by a transmitter in some orientations than in others. Thus, when installing an antenna in an area serviced by a plurality of transmitters, the antenna is moved to various orientations in an effort to find the one orientation that provides acceptable reception from all appropriate transmitters.
Unfortunately, while one orientation is best for one transmitter, that orientation is seldom best for other transmitters. This problem escalates as the number of possible transmitters increases. Accordingly, it is known to provide antennas with motors that may be remotely controlled by a user. Thus, when the user selects an RF channel for reception, the user remotely controls the motor in order to rotate the antenna until reception by the RF receiver is optimized. This manual approach to the aiming of an antenna is time consuming because the acquisition of optimized reception usually requires a trial and error manual rotation of the antenna each time that a new channel is selected.
The present invention is directed to the automatic rotation of an antenna.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a system for automatically positioning an antenna comprises a motor and a controller. The motor is arranged to be coupled to the antenna. The controller is coupled to the motor, and the controller is arranged to control the motor in response to selection of a channel so as to automatically drive the antenna to a position at which the antenna is aimed at a source of a signal associated with the selected channel. The controller drives the motor to the position based upon a location of the signal source and a location of the antenna.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a controller controls the automatic positioning of an antenna. The controller is arranged to drive the antenna to a position dependent upon (i) a channel selected by a user, (ii) a location of the antenna, and (iii) a location of a source of a signal associated with the selected channel.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a method of positioning an antenna comprises a) automatically computing a path through which an antenna is to be moved from a first position to a second position, wherein the automatic computation is based upon a location of a remote source corresponding to a channel to which a tuner is tuned by a user and upon a location of the tuner, wherein the first position of the antenna is a current position of the antenna, and wherein the second position of the antenna is a position at which the antenna is aimed at the remote source, and b) moving the antenna through the automatically computed path.